There are a few companies, which engineer, build and sell rotary boat hull cleaning machines, which they sell to Marinas. Cleaning the hull of your boat can add as much as 3-5 knots in the water. Some United States regions do not allow these because when removing the algae and organic film into the water can deplete the oxygen in the localized water killing fish. These overseas companies seem to have the right idea, however if you were to check on the NPDES permitting for the San Diego to San Francisco Coastal Regions and with Coastal Commission and California Water Codes 13.263 and Fish and Game and EPA you will find it is quite a sticky issue. There is also an issue with run off if you clean your boat hull near the water because the water goes somewhere, generally into storm drains and back into the ocean, river or lake you see? Like wise even if you design a system to clean it in the water how do you bring the boat into the lock, clean it (swimming pool clean the water) for 10 hours to insure wash water volume is accumulated and discharged? Then how will you monitor it? And since there is not yet such a permit even available you have to wait for the Government Regulators to get off their asses and coffee breaks to create one, with public hearings, etc. This is the kind of environmental issues faced by Marinas and even though you need that hull cleaned for savings in fuel efficiency, speed in water and safety of the hulls integrity, the Marina may not be legally allowed to clean it. The poor Marina owner even if they go thru the process to get permitted their project loses the money it could have made sitting on idle property that they could have put a slip in and been collecting fees? Imagine in Ft Lauderdale sitting on a property that you could lease out for over $50K - 100K during the winter months; so much for that income property. Also you must build your system to and have space to use it. If you use it in a slip already there and put an inflatable raft under the boat and blow it up around it, do it there. Great, you do not hurt the environment (which is BS anyway, algae on a boat does not kill fish), as we have cruise ships dumping 1 million gallons of gray and black water into the sea? I suppose they could clean the hull and then leave, before any regulators come to see what they did. If they did happen by no one could cite you because you did not hurt any thing and collected the water and filtered it from the dock on your hand truck pool cleaner filtration system? But sometimes you might be better off to ask forgiveness in this way than to ask permission and be denied because no one ever asked the question that the brain dead regulators never pondered because they never had to make a friggin payroll? The issues with this are different size expandable rafts are needed. If you break the ionic bond of the crud on the bottom somehow you may be able to clean the boat hull, still the issue is collection, but if you had the thing mounted on a roller to suck the water around it while it ironically departed the crud, then you could do it? But still getting that approved would be a real problematic issue indeed. Think on this. |
